Friday, July 10, 2009

Working Hard (not for the $$)

As Friday draws to a close in my dissertation boot camp, I have completed transcribing all of my interviews that I have conducted thus far. I transcribed 8 interviews in 5 days. Not sure if that is good or not. Sorta mediocre I would bet, but then, I never even learned to type. And laptops, I have discovered, are not very ergonomic in the keyboard placement. Oh well. I've recovered from this type of wrist strain before!

This weekend I am going to try out this new qualitative data coding software I downloaded, called TAMS. So far it is not that user friendly, but then it was freeware. I guess I should read the directions before I give it a bad review. Potentially, it will help me comb through the piles of transcriptions, to identify where respondents mentioned "connection between language and culture" or "importance of program continuity" or whatever themes I feel might be there, and organize it, perhaps saving me many hours of shuffling through printouts with colored markers, sticky notes, and the like. Is this exciting stuff or what? Well, anything that can help me save time at this point is exciting to me. How else am I going to graduate next May?